Tennis Articles

If you closed your eyes and listened to the crazed antics you could be mistaken for thinking that these guys were playing for at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars in prizemoney (after travelling half-way round the world to boot).

"People don't seem to understand that it's a damn war out there"
Haarhuis sliced the first serve to the deuce court out wide, but Connors had picked it up early and lunged a double-fisted backhand winner straight down the line. The crowd erupted with Connors, punching the air as he danced to the ad court, eyes bulging. Look at the way Rafa punches the air now in EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.

As a coach, there's a million bits of feedback you can give when a player makes a mistake - bad luck (unimaginative and is it really down to luck?), don't do this (but I already did it so what can I do about it now?) or something worse ("miss this one and you're running laps/doing pushups").

Armed with a rapier-like one-handed backhand “Budgie” once, embarassingly for the AIS, beat all the top Australian juniors (including Woodbridge, Fromberg and Stoltenberg) at a satellite tournament in Warrandyte. Leo coached Budgie to the first round of the Australian Open before a back injury cut down his hopes of a professional playing career which, until then, seemed likely.

You've seen it before - Roger Federer lines up with what looks like an obvious dropshot, but then produces a slice forehand winner as his opponent stumbles forward - fooled by the sudden, deadly change of intent.
As he prepares for the forehand, Roger, in a split second, must prepare, not for a dropshot, but as though he is going to hit a dropshot. All this while taking into account his opponent's court positioning (and where he thinks his opponent is expecting him to hit his forehand).
And it's not easy to [...]